GREENVILLE, S.C. (Oct. 8, 2005) - The East Tennessee State cross country teams competed at the Furman Invitational today with the men's squad taking fifth place out of 23 teams, and the women grabbing sixth.

It was solid performance by both squads from a conference standpoint, as the men defeated both other Atlantic Sun opponents, and the women finished behind only A-Sun foes Campbell and North Florida.

In a race conducted under sloppy conditions due to the large amount of rainfall the area has seen recently, Jordan Ladd crossed the finish line first for the Bucs, clocking in at 26:46.28.Following him in second an third, respectively were Peter Dalton (26:59.13) and Bernard Towett (27:33.18).Josh Hicks finished fourth for ETSU with a time of 27:45.39, and Jeff Crane rounded out the Buc at 28:37.00 and Abdi Chepkwony also ran for the Bucs, finishing in 29:17.40.

"Even though it was hot and the course was wet, our guys really competed today," said men's head coach Dave Walker."With that said, we still obviously have some things we need to work on before the conference meet."

The Lady Bucs fought to a sixth-finish, despite competing without their top runner from a week ago, MacKenzie LaBonte.Christine Ward paced the Lady Bucs, crossing the finish line in 19:23.85.Heather Adkins finished second for ETSU and 36th overall (20:27.56), and Traci McAmis finished third (43rd overall) at 20:45.15.Allie Frazier and Ali Carney finished fourth and fifth, (77th and 98th) with times of 21:30.00 and 22:09.00, respectively.

"Christine really ran well, and is showing a lot more consistency," said women's head coach Michelle Byrne."Tracy is running better at every meet; she is really learning how to run at these competitions.We're showing improvement each time out, and we just have to keep plugging away."